Just A Few Little Hiccups
by lostsword
Summary: If your tired of long fics and just want a short read, THIS IS FOR YOU! Random scenes from the HTTYD universe that I think up or YOU request. Each chapter is different and probably won't be related, so don't worry about getting lost. I WOULD suggest reading A Dragon's Breath before you read this though. HiccupxAstrid SnoutloutxRuffnut FishlegsxOC TuffnutxOC. WEEKLY UPDATES! PIC PLZ
1. Episode I: Camping

**A/N: I haven't written a HTTYD story in _AGES_. It feels SO GOOOD! I have MISSED YOU PEOPLE!**

**Now that THAT is out of the way, let's explain a few things. First off, this is NOT a story...well, not like what I usually do. I plan to write a NEW HTTYD fic pretty soon, but since I want to get my audience back and my flow back, i'm writing little fics every week until it comes out.**

** Basically each chapter will be little interconnected ramblings that I make each week. I don't promise you length, but I promise quality and consistency, so please follow this thing! I love the HTTYD universe and want to get back into it, but if I'm not getting any views, what's the point of all that effort. In short, it's all up to YOU. So enjoy this so that I can enjoy this.**

** Oh, and I am updating this on SUNDAYS (I'm actually doing a weekly thing for once!)**

** ALSO, there is now a Lostsword Blog and Lostsword Facebook for you to Subscribe/like to your hearts content. The links are on my Fanfiction Profile, so please go and subscribe/like! I want to take over the world!**

** IF you have ANY fanart or story ideas, please SUBMIT them to me in a PM. These COULD possibly end up as the COVER PICTURE for the next HTTYD fic. If appropriate, they WILL end up on the Blog and Facebook accounts.**

**Now, on to the first Episode!**

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**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HTTYD. I OWN MY OC'S, MY IDEAS, MY CREATIONS, ETC. I MAKE NOTHING FROM THIS EXCEPT PURE ENJOYMENT.**

Episode I: Camping

It was a quiet night, a peaceful night, the kind you only got every so often and wished to never see leave. Hiccup, personally, had such nights _every_ week; when their "temporary" duties with the village were done for the week, the Dragon Riders would almost always elect to fly off to a nearby deserted island—this time, they checked before setting up camp—and spend their weekend fishing, camping, hunting, and of course, _flying_.

Currently, the Riders—which consisted of Hiccup, Astrid, Snoutlout, Fishlegs, and the Thorston twins Tuffnut and Ruffnut—were sacked out around a large campfire, their dragons acting as makeshift chairs—Toothless and Nad were both set in such a way that they doubled the sitting space for their respective masters. On one side of the group there was a salt encrusted beach that bordered a massive body of water that extended on unto infinity, on the other, there was a random arrangement of tents and smoldering craters that marked the sites of a dragon's resting place.

"You know," Tuffnut began from his place by the fire, he was the only one not on a dragon because of his status as the group cook. The blond haired warrior was, in fact, cooking their dinner at that very moment. "We haven't done that truth game in forever."

Astrid looked over at Ruffnut with a devious twinkle in her eyes. The fair haired female simply shrugged, her attention more focused on the boastful warrior she was currently wrapped around. Snoutlout, remembering the _last_ time they had played the game in question, shook his head violently. Turning her gaze to Fishlegs, the bulky dragon rider reluctantly nodded his head. Finally, Astrid brought her gaze back to the warrior _she_ was wrapped around and saw him smiling.

"I'm game," Hiccup said in agreement as he fought off the little voice in the back of his head telling him that this was a _very_ bad idea. If Astrid wanted it, he reasoned, then what else mattered?

"Okay," Astrid said as she—_very_ reluctantly—dislodged herself from Hiccup and walked over to the center of the firering beside Tuffnut. "In case _some of us_ forgot how to play," she said with a I-Promise-To-Abuse-You-Thoroughly wink at Snoutlout. "I'll explain the rules: Going from left to right in a circle, each Viking either asks a question or assigns a task to another viking. _If_ the Viking refuses the first option offered, then the other option, the one that hasn't been asked yet, is offered. _If_ they refuse _that_, then they get branded," Astrid explained with several pointed glares at Snoutlout. _She_ clearly remembered what had happened the last time this game had been played too. Snoutlout gulped.

"So who goes first?" Ruffnut asked as she comforted her boyfriend, who despite his manly appearance and massive muscles, was quivering in his boots like a scared little pup.

"Well...Tuffnut suggested it, so he goes first," Hiccup said, deciding to mediate for the group before any violence happened. As an extra step, he beckoned Astrid over to him and had her sit on his lap with his arms around her in a comforting as well as restraining hold.

"Alright, Ruff!" Tuffnut said as he absentmindedly eyed the boiling soup inside his iron pot. "Question: What's the craziest thing you've done to Snout?" he asked with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

Ruffnut, in a display of control that actually impressed Astrid, only sputtered wildly and blushed as red as a blood bush in Spring. "T-t-task!" She stuttered horribly as she glared at her brother while at the same time trying to get air in her lungs.

"Sing the drunk song!" Tuffnut shouted triumphantly before quickly returning to the group's dinner, which was already boiling more than he had wanted.

Ruffnut glared at her brother so darkly that even Astrid shivered slightly as she said in a low, menacing voice, "when this is over, I am going to _kill_ you..." Taking a deep breath, she removed herself from Snoutlout and walked towards the center of the group—and dangerously close to her brother.

"_I bang on the door but you won't let me in, __'cause you're sick and tired of me reeking of gin. __Locked all the doors from the front to the back, and left me a note telling me I should pack."_ Ruffnut, as she sang in a surprisingly—at least for everyone except Tuffnut and Astrid—good drunken accent, began to sway around in a tipsy fashion while miming drinking from a mug of mead.

_"I walk in the bar and the fella's all cheer, They order me up a mead and a beer. You ask me why I'm singing this song, Some call it a tavern but I call it home."_ at the end of this verse, Ruff's vocals increased in volume and she made a rather rude gesture at the star splattered sky.

"_SCREW YOU! I'm drunk!"_

"_SCREW YOU! I'm drunkkkk!"_

"_SCREW YOU! I'm Drunk!"_

Following this, Ruffnut's voice dropped back down to the drunken lullaby like tone she had been using before._"And I'm going to be drunk till the next time I'm drunk!"_

_"You've given me an option, you say I must choose, 'tween you and the liqour, then I'll take the booze! Jumpin' on Western down to the south side, Where I'll sit down and exercise my Nordish pride."_ at this, Ruffnut acted out the random actions described in the song and continued to mime drinking while also thumping her chest at the end. Then, as the louder lines returned to the song, she increased her vocals again.

"_SCREW YOU! I'm DRUNK!"_

"_SCREW YOU! I'm drunk!"_

_ "Pour my beer down the dock! I've got more in the trunk."_ after saying this part, Ruffnut kicked an unsuspecting Tuffnut in the hindquarters and watched as he shrieked like a little girl. The blond haired female quickly caught her terrified brother by the scruff of his furs and yanked him away from the fire, but only barely. Throwing him away from the fire, she continued her drunken dance/song as Tuffnut landed in a traumatized heap on the ground.

"_SCREW YOU! I'm drunk!"_

"_SCREW YOU! I'm drunkkk!"_

"_SCREW YOU! I'M DRUNK!"_

"_SCREW YA...Am I drunk?_"

Applause broke out all around—with the obvious exception of Tuffnut—as Ruffnut bowed to each of her friends. Though her glare immediately returned once it subsided and Tuffnut had picked himself up.

"I had _no_ idea you could sing that well babe," Snoutlout whispered sweetly into her ear as his strong arms wrapped back around her. "After all the times you made _me_ sing," her boyfriend's tone switched almost immediately from sweet to whining, but Ruffnut didn't really care. He was teasing her anyways.

"We'll talk about it later," she assured him before turning back around to face her brother, however she found that, to her surprise, he had been listening in on her private moment.

"SNOUT CAN SING!?" Tuffnut cried in shock as everyone around them gasped. Astrid seemed curious, Hiccup seemed awed, Fishlegs seemed...perplexed?

"Oh you're dead now!" Snoutlout shouted in anger—and slight embarrassment—as he bounded up and tackled Tuffnut. The two boys, men really, quickly began trading blows with their fists as well as some incredibly colorful words.

"Should we stop this?" Astrid asked Hiccup as she watched with slight concern. While Tuffnut wasn't weak, he wasn't a match for the brute strength of a raging Snoutlout.

"Probably," Hiccup agreed and glanced at Spitfire; the Monstrous Nightmare grumbled out an affirmative and gently lowered Ruffnut from it's—oddly enough, comfy—wings before shooting a ball of fire towards the duo. The blazing fire missed both Vikings by a good foot or two, but the unbelievable heat that passed over them did not go as unnoticed.

"Dear Thor!" Snoutlout shouted as he jumped off of a bruised and bloody Tuffnut and quickly began to pat himself down, thinking he was on fire; Tuffnut quickly began doing the same while the rest of the Rider's laughed.

"Your turn Fishlegs," Ruffnut said as she laughed at her brother and boyfriend's antics.

"Hmm..." The more tactical member of their group said as he thought. "Hiccup," He said at last and watched as the Dragon Rider turned to face him. "Question: what did it feel like when you shot Toothless down?" He asked as he pulled out his little notebook. Typical, yet loveable, Fishlegs.

Hiccup paused as everyone, dragons included, looked at him. Well, except Tuffnut and Snoutlout, but that was a given considering their current situation.

"Well..." Hiccup began softly, "I felt...I guess elated doesn't really cover the feeling...proud? No...um..." he paused once more and began to think. "_Amazed_," he said at last. "I felt _amazed,_ dumbstruck, awed...I couldn't believe I had done it," Hiccup paused momentarily at the memory. "I thought I was going to be the greatest Viking ever, to have _captured a Night Fury_...I thought I was going to be..." he stopped and shook his head. "It was shocking, but I guess the answer to your question would be amazed."

Everyone was doing that _thing_ again. The thing they always did when he talked, where they would glaze over halfway—it wasn't that they were bored, they were in fact hanging on his every word. What they were actually doing was thinking to themselves, wondering how they would have reacted in his place.

"Astrid," Hiccup said, deciding to break the silent moment the group was going through—Snoutlout and Tuffnut had stopped jumping around by now. "Task: kiss me," he said softly and watched her face light up while Snoutlout, barely, frowned. Hopefully Ruff didn't catch him—a loud yelp a few seconds later indicated she had, however, caught the quick frown made by her boyfriend.

"Gladly," Astrid said warmly and hungrily kissed him. The two stayed like that for several seconds before Fishlegs coughed and the two broke apart. Barely.

"Alright," Astrid said, her devious side winning out over her emotions for the moment. "Snoutlout," she said and the boy groaned. "Pick."

"What?" Snoutlout asked incredulously. He couldn't believe she was giving him the option of whichever torture he wanted! It was either incredibly noble or horribly evil. He was pretty sure he was not going to like it no matter how she intended the wording however.

"Pick. One." Astrid said coolly as she drew and examined one of her new knives, it was a present from her father who was out on a trip to Asia once again. She figured—correctly—that it would intimidate the large warrior.

"Uh...um..." Snoutlout said uncertainly as he stared at the wicked looking blade in the blond haired huntress' hands. It looked like it was taunting him, telling him that no matter which he chose, either would end badly. Very badly. "Question..." he said weakly, knowing in his gut this was going to end bad. It just had to with her.

"Who do you like more, me or Ruffnut?" she asked casually, not really caring. Well, _emotionally_ she didn't care—she liked Hiccup _way_ more than she had ever liked Snoutlout, if you could even call it that. Her stomach was more along the lines of revolted when it came to Snoutlout's advances, while it seemed a butterfly colony wanted to move in when she even _considered _thinking about Hiccup's smile. However, she was _extremely interested_ in how Ruffnut would react if he answered wrong. Which she knew he would.

"Refuse!" Snoutlout shouted—it was closer to a squeal really—quickly as his eyes grew wide. "Refuse! Refuse!" He said again as Ruffnut glared daggers at Snoutlout that put all of Astrid's previous glares to shame. "Task!" He begged as he noticed Ruffnut's expression.

"Fine," Astrid said as Tuffnut and Fishlegs sniggered and Hiccup tried not to smirk. He had forgiven his cousin for all of the pain that he had endured by his fists, but _still_, Hiccup was human and watching his girlfriend abuse his former bully just did _not_ get old. "Kiss the one you like the most," she said deviously and watched Snoutlout's expression go from horrified to 'oh-Thor-kill-me'.

"Refuse?" Snoutlout asked weakly.

"You get branded if you refuse again, that's 8.9 on the pain scale," Fishlegs informed him as he stared at the rule book he had made at some point in time prior.

In response, Snoutlout took off running.

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**IT HAS BEEN A **_**LONG**_** TIME SINCE I GOT TO WRITE THESE CHARACTERS. MISSED IT SO MUCH.**

**I hope you enjoyed the fic, PLEASE REVIEW and let me know what you think. Feel free to add ideas, characters, WHATVER YOU WANT. This is a pretty relaxed fic and doesn't even have to match a particular plotline or timeline. If you want me to write them as animals, let me know; if you want me to write a chapter where their in a modern fic, let me know; if you have some REALLY weird idea that you want to see, let me know!**

**Hope you enjoyed it once again, remember to REVIEW, SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, AND RATE. (Don't forget the Blog and the Facebook, I REALLY want to take over the world...or at least a small island...maybe just an abandoned building...**

**Oh, before I forget, the song that Ruffnut sang was "F.U. I'm Drunk" by Flogging Molly. It has a FEW minor changes to the lyrics because of the audience and the fic, so don't think you found the wrong recording when you look it up. Admit it, you WANT to find that song right now...**

**Enjoy the remainder of the weekend, can't wait to see you all next week!**

**C U NEXT TiME!**

_**Lostsword**_


	2. Episode II: Dragon Idol

**A/N: I'd like to take a moment to thank Megadracosaurus for the incredibly helpful ideas and suggestions. I got somewhere around half a dozen episode ideas from his review ALONE. Thank you my now favorite fan, I dedicate this episode to you.**

Episode II: Dragon Idol

"Welcome viewers!" Gobber the Belch said grandly as he, Stoick the Vast, and Sigrum Hofferson sat in large plush chairs behind a massive desk made of intricately carved oak. "Mah name is Gobber and joining me tonight are Berk's own Stoick the Vast and Sigrum the Traveler!"

The trio of men were all smiling lightly, but not overly so. Behind them was a large stage bathed in lights and surrounded by television screens and stage crews that were apparently working in haste to finish the final preparations for the night's event.

"In case ya might be wonderin', we," Gobber made a motion with his hand towards both himself and the two men beside him, "will be judging a number of contestants right here in the lovely island community of Berk. Based on a weighted score ranging from one to ten, each contestant will advance to tha next round minus the lowest scoring contestant in tha group. _However_, if ye choose so, you can save your favorite contestant automatically by sending in ah vote to our hotline at 1800-REVIEW NOW."

Gobber paused briefly as he listened to someone talking to him through an earpiece that was connected by a thin wire that came out of the back of his suit. "Alrighty folks, we're starting in five...four...three...two...one..._and_ GOOO!" Gobber shouted as the lights dimmed slightly and the barest hum of smoke machines being turned on could be heard behind the stage.

"_Heyyyyyyyyy oh, here comes the danger up in this club!_" A feminine voice shouted as two figures strutted onto the stage while loud music began to blare across the room.

"_When we get started we ain't gonna stop!_" An energetic male voice shouted at an equally high tone as the female. The smoke was still clearing as the next line came out.

"_We gonna turn it out till it gets too hot!_" Both the male and female singers said loudly while the music got louder. "_Everybody sing heyyyyyyyyy oh!"_

The smoke cleared at long last and revealed Tuffnut and Ruffnut, both decked out in dark clothing, tight jeans, and more than a liberal amount of sharpie inspired camouflage. The twins' blonde hair was nearly hidden behind dark bandana's and the heavy smoke filling the room.

"_Tell'em turn it up till they can't no more,_" Tuffnut sang as the music began to drop to a low repetitive base beat. "_Lets get this thing shakin like a disco ball. This is your last warning, a courtesy call!_" As Tuffnut finished his line, the music began to pick up once again.

"_Heyyyyyyyy Oh, here comes the danger up in this club, when we get started and we ain't gonna stop!_" Ruffnut sang energetically as she bounced around on the stage with her brother, moving to the music in a way that only adrenaline junkies could enjoy. "_We gonna turn it out till it gets too hot! Everybody sing, Heyyyyyyyyy oh!_"

Tuffnut began singing almost before Ruffnut had finished, "_Tell'em turn it up till they can't no __more; lets get this thing shakin like a disco ball!_" Tuffnut actually drew several whistles by jumping up into the air and doing a front flip. "_This is your last warning, a courtesy call!_"

"_I am not afraid of the storm that comes my way..._" Ruffnut sang softly as the music slowed, but the guitars in the background plowed on ahead with their cords. "_When it hits it shakes me to the core! It makes me stronger than before!_" her vocals picked up slightly, however she—and the music—quickly dropped back down as Tuffnut began once again.

"_It's not a question about trust...but will you stand with us..._" Tuffnut sang from the side of the stage as both he and his sister walked towards the center of the stage and faced the judges directly.

"_Can you feel it? Make it real oh!"_ the twins sang together, flawlessly in sync as they began to do another assortment of crazy antics and moves on stage.

"_I think it might wash away tonight...awaken from this never ending fight! It takes more than meets the eye...This war we're fighting is not just rotting..._" Ruffnut sang fluidly as Tuffnut joined her again for the chorus.

"_Hey-o, here comes the danger up in this club! When we get started and we ain't gonna stop! We gonna turn it out till it gets too hot!_" The music began to roar again and the twins danced around a bit more, however it was becoming obvious that the combination of singing—which was surprisingly good—and dancing was taking a toll on the duo and as such, their movements were slightly sluggish.

"_Everybody sing, Heyyyyyyyyy oh!_" Tuffnut sang as Ruffnut took a moment to get a breather. The blondes were both starting to sweat, but otherwise were doing fine. The music began to pick up again as the chorus boomed out. "_Tell'em turn it up till they can't no more! Lets get this thing shakin like a disco ball! This is your last warning, a courtesy call!_"

As Tuffnut dropped back, Ruffnut began to sing once again. "_There's a rumble in the floor...so get prepared for war,_" her voice and the music began to slow once again as Ruffnut sang the second verse. "_When it hits it'll knock you to the ground! When it shakes up everything around!_" Ruffnut continued as the music—ever changing—began to pick up again, however, almost as soon as it had began, it went back to a low roar and Ruff began to sing softly again. "_But survival is a must...so will you stand with us?_"

Tuffnut rejoined his sister and the duo sang the last two lines of the verse together. "_Can you feel it? Make it real! Oh, Make me feel it!_"

"_I think it might wash away tonight. Awaken from this never ending...fight!_" Tuffnut sang, forcing enthusiasm back into his body as he pulled off several more impressive moves, including a handstand/back flip combo. "_It takes more than meets the eye...this war we're fighting is not just rotting..._" Tuffnut finished as the music dropped to a near whisper for a few seconds while Ruffnut maneuvered up to stand beside her brother. Smiling at him, they bumped fists for the briefest fraction of a second before they launched into the last lines of the entire song.

"_Heyyyyyyyyy oh, here comes the danger up in this club! When we get started and we ain't gonna stop! We gonna turn it out till it gets too hot! Everybody sing, Heyyyyyyyyy Oh! Tell'em turn it up till they can't no more, lets get this thing shakin like a disco ball,_" The twins continued the song as the music flowed perfectly between blaring loud and alluringly soft. "_This your last warning, a __courtesy call!_"

"_Heyyyyyyyyy oh, here comes the danger up in this club! When we get started and we ain't gonna stop! We gonna turn it out till it gets too hot! Everybody sing, Heyyyyyyyyy Oh! Tell'em turn it up till they can't no more, lets get this thing shakin like a disco ball,_" as the music got to the loudest point in the entire song, the duo—who had drifted to opposite sides of the stage—turned suddenly and ran towards each other. They jumped and connected with each other's boots and, in the middle of the air, preformed a duel triple front flip. They landed perfectly and completely in sync with each other as the speakers roared out one final burst of rock music.

"_This your last warning, a courtesy call!_"

Silence.

Clap.

Clap. Clap.

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap

_Clapclapclapclapclapclapclap clapclapclapclapclapclapclap ._

People began to jump to their feet as they applauded the performance and the performers. Tuffnut and Ruffnut raised their arms together and preformed a brief bow that sent the crowd even more wild. The twins wiped thick streams of heavy, salty sweat from their faces as they approached the judges table.

Sigrum, to the explorer's credit, only treated them to a smile that could have spanned from one side of the Baltic Sea to the other. The burly, heavily muscled man with the exotically braided chin hair wrote something down on a large white piece of tough paper and flipped it over to reveal a 10.

After Sigrum was Stoick. The even _larger_ viking—how that was possible was beyond most scholars—did not smile as large, nor did he award a perfect score. He gave them a 9.9.

"Work on that endurance and staying in tune with each other the entire time, and _maybe_ I'll think about giving you lot a perfect score," Stoick said with a small, mischievous smile.

Gobber, being Gobber, raved in his own Nourish way before settling with a perfect score of 10. He seemed the most ecstatic of the three, however no one could really understand anything he was saying under the accent, so it was generally just assumed to be good things.

After Tuffnut and Ruffnut were walked off the stage, Gobber, Stoick, and Sigrum turned to face the cameras that were previously behind them.

"Well folks, if ya want more of that, please go and let us know at our hotline at 1800-REVIEW NOW!"

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**Despite the hours I spent listening to this ONE song to make sure I got it right, I thoroughly enjoyed writing this fic. I hope you all enjoyed it as well, because I would definitively like to continue this, I just need input. I know the dialogue took up most of the fic and that there was very little phsyical actions to read about, so please forgive me for that. I'm about to pass out, which is why I ended the episode here, so goodnight/good morning/good afternoon, whatever it is.**

**Lostsword**


	3. Episode III: A Fishy Date

**A/N: It has been FAR TOO LONG since I have last wrote a fic for HTTYD. I have missed this fandom and I have missed this audience for months! I have to sadly inform you that this fic will not be updated as much as I wanted it to be, but I will try to update as often as I find the time. I've gotten a lot more work put on my plate (both in fanfiction and my life outside of FF) than I had intended. Anyways, let's get on with the show!**

**A/B: For those of you that are new to my work in the HTTYD world, I have always felt rather bad at leaving poor Fishlegs out of the romantic, and general, plans in my HTTYD universe. I have nothing against the guy, but he just doesn't have a whole lot of room in my fic plans. To fixate that problem, I have dedicated this chapter to get Fishlegs a date.**

Episode III: A Fishy Date

"I don't know Hiccup," Fishlegs said uneasily as he toyed with the hem of his furry parka. "This might not end well...she could say no! And then the dragons will go berserk, and the oceans will start rising, and the gods of death will come riding down to-"

"Woah! Woah Fish! Calm down" Hiccup cried, trying to ease his friend's fears—and admittedly wild beliefs—before it got...farther...out of hand.

"-destroy us all and then-"

"Fish!'

"-We'll all have to wallow in the-"

"FISH!"

"Huh?" Fishlegs said as he was abruptly brought back into the world of reality.

"This is going to work, trust me," Hiccup said in what he hoped was a confident voice before he patted Fishlegs' shoulder in a supportive gesture.

"I hope so..."

Without another word, the two friends continued inside into the _Mead and Seed_. Inside, they found two of their friends, Tuffnut and Ruffnut, viciously locked in a arm wrestling contest over one of the pub's many wooden tables. Among the crowd of excited onlookers and drunken patrons stood Astrid and Snoutlout, the latter of whom was screaming encouragingly at Ruffnut while bashing Tuffnut at the same time.

"Come on babe! Waste 'em!" Snoutlout cried as he watched his girlfriend struggle against her twin brother, who for all the world was trying to not lose his dignity by being beaten by a girl.

"Miss me?" Astrird said, her eyes lighting up considerably upon seeing Hiccup walk in.

"Always," Hiccup said before Astrid jumped him, as she was known to do from time to time. The kissing was quick, needy, and very brief—Fishlegs had to cough several times before they realized there was, in fact, others in the world beside them.

"She's over there," Astrid said with a nod over her right shoulder towards the bar that sat against the rear wall of the pub. "Good luck Fish," she teased with a conspiratory wink towards the larger viking.

Hiccup chuckled and lead, half dragging, his friend towards the bar and its currently sole occupant.

"I don't know if this is a good idea Hiccup," Fishlegs said as they neared the bar and his earlier fears began to resurface.

"You'll be fine," Hiccup assured his friend as they drew even closer to the bar. "I think she likes you," he added with a small, friendly nudge.

"Really?" Fishlegs asked, his voice a mixture of disbelief and awe, as well as a small, almost pitying amount of hope.

"Uh huh," Hiccup said as he gave Fishlegs a small, final push towards the bar. "Go get her!"

Fishlegs gulped briefly before nodding and moving forward to take his seat at the bar. A seat as far from _her_ as he could get.

Hiccup almost groaned out loud before he left to find Astrid.

The source of Fishleg's unease and Hiccup's frustrated efforts could all be traced back to one, simple person. This person was around Fishlegs' age, they had the same weird fascination with dragon stats that Fishlegs had, and was, most importantly, currently single. All of these shared traits should have seen a couple formed between them within the first few minutes of their first association. The only thing standing in the way of this was that they had never met before.

Fishlegs was too terrified of woman—excluding Astrid of course, but he had grown up around her—to even try to approach the desired female that he now only sat a few bar stools away from. It didn't help that the mentioned woman was extraordinarily beautiful, fit, and deadly.

Her name was Lena Jorrgsen.

She was shorter than most vikings her age, Fishlegs—who was of average height—was actually taller than her. However, her her height was not the only unusual thing about her; if anything it was the only normal thing about her. Her hair was a mixture of brown and black strands with odd blonde highlights along the edges of the longest ones. Her eyes were a light violet hue and showed an intelligence that was rare for a viking youth such as herself. Her figure was petite and lightly muscled due to the hours of training she preformed—similar to Astrid's own training, though it was nowhere near as rigorous as the huntress' own regime.

In short, she was a deadly beauty and very, _very_ sought after by the unmatched youth of the island of Berk. Fishlegs, with his "husky" appearance and boyish looks, had no chance. Or at least he thought he didn't.

"Hello there," a silky voice said, bringing Fishlegs out of his contemplative, and frankly depressing, train of thought.

"He-" Fishlegs started to say, only to realize that Lena Jorrgsen was sitting right beside him and staring intently into his eyes. "Lenajorrgsengreatthoryourtalkingtomewhatdidieverd otodeservethis!?" Fish spat out in complete shock as he was completely caught off guard. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought Lena Jorrgsen would approach _him_ willingly.

Rather than be disturbed by his terrified expression or rapid, completely unreadable speech, Lena giggled softly before smiling brightly. "You're not used to girls talking to you, are you?" She teased lightly as she drank from the wooden mug in her hand.

Not trusting his vocal cords, Fishlegs merely nodded in quick, jerky movements as his face turned a light shade of red. Still smiling at him, Lena made a sign with her unoccupied hand and the bartender came by with another mug.

"That's okay, I'm not used to guys talking to me either," she assured him before downing the remainder of her original mug and then moving on to immediately consume the contents of the second mug in record time. "Hey, do you feel like getting some air?"

Fishlegs, silently thanking every deity he had ever heard of before, nodded in quick, jerky motions once more. Lena smiled even brighter at him and took his hand before leading him towards the pub exit. While Fishlegs froze up completely in shock as he was mindlessly being dragged out the door, he heard several stunned expressions from behind him.

"Did Fighlegs Ingerman just leave with Lena Jorrgsen?"

"How did he manage that?!"

"There's _no_ way that was Fishlegs!"

"I want a mug of whatever he was drinking!"

Ignoring the comments, Lena led Fishlegs outside and over to the walkway that ran alongside the clifftop pub's main floor. Leaning against the railing that was connected to the walkway, Lena observed the large, yet not overly tall, viking that she was interacting with.

There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that he was out of shape, probably couldn't handle a weapon if she showed him how first, and to be plain about it, he was completely unmanly in every sense of the word. And she loved that so much it hurt.

Much like her friend Astrid Hofferson, Lena wasn't looking for the manly, war-mongering, muscle laden, stereotypical male viking boyfriend that everyone on Berk thought that a female viking should be interested in. She wanted a man with more brains than brawn, not the other way around.

_He's still oddly attractive though_, Lena thought as she stared at large viking as he tried to talk to her. His mouth was opening and closing, much like a fish would do before it died, but words had, as of yet, failed to come out the other end. As if to spite her, words came out of his mouth the very next second.

"Iheardyoulikedreadingthedragonmanual!" He shouted out at last, the words coming so quickly that Lena couldn't even begin to understand them.

_Get it together Fish!_ Fishlegs thought after he had finally managed to get a coherent—well maybe not _coherent—_sentence out of his vocal cords and through his seizing mouth.

"I mean," Fishlegs began, this time _much_ slower, "I heard that...um...you, uh, like to read the...dragon manual?"

Lena smiled brightly at him and nodded enthusiastically. "Of course!" She agreed happily while secretly glad that he hadn't brought up some dumb subject like slaying dragons or something that she had already heard a million times. "It's full of so many interesting pieces of information!"

"I know right?!" Fishlegs energetically said, "Like how the Bullrougher can live in a cave network just as easily as it can on a grassy field?"

"Or how a Chickenpoxer is allegedly derived from a Gronkle and a Monstrous Nightmare mating?" Lena said, just as excitedly as she mentally sighed in contentment. Finally, a man that she could actually _talk_ to.

_Definitely not going to figure out if _that_ one is true or not_, Fishlegs thought before taking a step further into the nerd realm of dragon lore. "Or how the Devilish Dervish has level ten strength?"

"Oh shut up!" Lena cried out while laughing, her comment having almost given Fishlegs a heart attack at first. "Those guys have _nothing_ on the Gorgenghasts!" She argued as she held up her index and middle finger. "They have at _least_ level eleven strength!"

"That might be true," Fishlegs agreed with her before smirking, "but the Grimler dragons have level _fifteen_ strength, so ha!"

"Don't 'ha' me!" Lena complained in frustration while her eyes betrayed her by sparkling excitedly. "Sure, the Grimler is stronger, but it can't _swim_ worth a single hair off Odon's beard!"

"Oh _that_ was a low blow!" Fishlegs cried out while laughing with her. "Dragons _rarely_ swim anyways, and Grimler's are more occupied on land raids than naval ones!"

They continued like that for hours, bantering back and forth over their knowledge of dragon lore in general and the Dragon Manual in particular. It was well into the earliest hours of the morning before they finally realized how long they had been out there.

"I really have to go," Lena said sadly as she stood up from her spot on the walkway—they had spent most of the night sitting with their legs hanging off over the cliff before them.

"Yeah, me too," Fishlegs said, just as dejected to have to end their conversation while it was still so alive and interesting.

"I...I guess I'll see you tomorrow," Lena said, for the first time that night showing a slightly unsure side of herself.

"Yeah," Fishlegs said rather lamely, unsure of how to respond to such a statement. Girls rarely even associated with him, and it was never in such a direct, face-to-face environment such as this one. He had never been told by a girl before that they were looking forward to seeing him again. Ever.

Before he could react, Lena made her move and leaned closer to Fishlegs, who immediately froze up again in shock. Laughing slightly as his obvious discomfort, Lena hugged him so tight he was worried she didn't expect to ever see him again.

"See you tomorrow!" She called as she let go of him and took off down the rugged streets of Berk.

"I think I'm in love..." Fishlegs said dreamily.

/

** Just so you know, this WAS supposed to be longer, but I ran out of time to write this. Like I said earlier, I don't have all the time in the world to write this stuff. I hoped you enjoyed it, but I gotta run. I purposely left out the kiss scene (don't deny it! You thought it was going to happen there at the end!) so that I could re-vist this couple later. That is, ASSUMING you want me to write another fic about them (hint hint).**

** Lena Jorrgsen (whom I kept mis-spelling Jerrgson) is my own creation (thus the mis-spelling is even more embarrassing). I hope you like her and I plan to add her into my other fic plans later down the road. (NO, that was not a hint at another HTTYD fic or ANYTHING like that...)**

** I'm also very sarcastic with my A/N bubbles (hint hint)**

**Let me know what you thought about it all in a review!**

_**Lostsword**_


	4. Episode IV: Exiled

_**A/N(1): For those of you who are not familiar with my HTTYD universe, I am a major fan of Astrid. This is 50% because she's hot and 50% because there is so much unexplained back story to her that I can pretty much make up anything I want about her. Anyways, I HIGHLY recommend you go to my profile page and read Cave In and Tavern Disaster to better aquatint yourself with the version of Astrid that I write. She is not OOC per say, but there is a LOT of back story I made up for her, so it might help you to read into all of that real quick.**_

_**A/N(2): I took the liberty of answering all of your current reviews (I missed doing it and I felt like bringing it back). If you want to read what I wrote to you, its ALL the way at the bottom after the story is finished. Consider it a bonus to reading a REALLY LONG chapter for once. If you don't care, no worries, just hit the review button and I will be fine.**_

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Episode IV: Exiled

It was like any other night for Astrid Hofferson as she felt one of her razor sharp axes shoot out of her hands. The axe tumbled end over end before it buried itself in one of the tree trunks at the other end of her training field.

Scowling softly at the depth of the hit—the axe had only gone _half_ _way_ through the tree's sturdy oak trunk—Astrid picked up another axe from her neatly arranged arsenal on the floor.

Taking care to cock the axe backwards for maximum penetration power, Astrid let the sharp weapon fly out of her hand and twirl across the field before it also sank into a tree trunk. This time, however, it sank all the way up to the _hilt_.

Smiling in victory, the huntress switched from her beloved battle axes and instead selected a massive longsword that was half her height and easily three quarters of her body weight.

Adjusting to the weight and feel of the odd weapon—one that her father stressed constantly that she learn—Astrid charged a nearby tree and began to deliver razor sharp blows to its trunk with a ferocity and speed that only could be matched by a monstrous nightmare.

Her attack lasted only a few minutes—such a cumbersome weapon would not permit any lengthy assault—before Astrid halted smoothly, the tree trunk now resembling a child's whittling pole instead of a mighty oak of the forest. With a self satisfied smirk, the blonde turned around and headed back over to her arsenal of weapons.

Astrid had fist started her collection when her father had given her a twin set of dual sided battle axes for her eighth birthday. Every year after that she had added more and more specialty weapons to the cache while augmenting it with a handful of standard weapons that she purchased with her own hard earned money.

The vast majority of her weapons—the antiques and extremely memorable ones—were kept in the armory in the basement of her family's home. However, the weapons she trained with were all contained within a large roll of fabric with deep pockets sowed into its insides.

After she had cleaned the longsword, and the two battle axes she had used earlier, Astrid returned the used weapons to their well worn pockets within the roll of cloth. Once she had, rather lovingly, returned her previous weapons, Astrid quickly began to select her new ones.

Though the sun was still sleeping within the depths of the great Northern Sea, Astrid had already worked through an impressive display of weaponry.

Throwing knives—a prized gift from her father—bladed sticks, several swords of varying length and width, dart guns—another gift her father had picked up on his travels—axes of varying sizes, spears, throwing stars—yet another specialty item from her father—and finally her prized battle axes and another longsword.

The only weapon at her disposal left to be used was the bow.

Though her father teased her to know end about how awkward she had been when she had first started to learn how to shoot a bow, Astrid had become rather spectacular at it. One of the very first occasions in which Snoutlout had attempted to court her had been an archery tournament hosted by the village.

She had beat everyone there, with the shocking exception of Fishlegs, without even trying. How that overweight weirdo had even come close to her perfect score was still lost on Astrid—and most of the village for that matter.

Pulling herself from her inner musings, Astrid brought the bow up and sighted in a target—a small squirrel perched up on a precariously high tree limb—before taking in a deep, but smooth, breath.

The squirrel twitched slightly as it heard some strange sound in the forest. Astrid let go of the arrow and watched intently as it sliced through the air like a knife through warm butter. The projectile soared like a wretched dragon until it connected with its target dead on.

_ One..._

The squirrel didn't even register its own death, it simply flipped twice in the air before falling down rapidly towards the hard surface of the earth below.

_Five..._

Astrid tracked the small corpse as it began spiraling even faster towards the ground as gravity began to take an effect on its miniscule form.

_Eight..._

After what felt like an eternity to Astrid, though it was really only a couple of seconds, the squirrel hit the ground with a microscopic thud and a small cloud of scattered leaves. Eight seconds. Eight houses. Eighty feet.

Not even a record...

Disappointed, Astrid reloaded her bow and sighted more squirrels before taking their short—no pun intended—lives as well. The archery practice lasted less than fifteen minutes in total and Astrid had spent a total of thirty arrows.

Not a single arrow was wasted.

Once she had finished shooting, Astrid carefully returned the bow to its pocket in the roll of cloth before she began the long trek across the training field in search of all of her arrows. "A good hunter leaves nothing behind," her father had once told her.

Astrid firmly believed that saying and followed it loyally as she collected her arrows and the squirrels. The former would be cleaned and returned to the same pocket that housed her bow. The latter would be taken home and dealt with by her mother.

"Hello Astrid."

The fair haired huntress spun around faster than someone wearing armor should have been able to. She had automatically dropped her arrows and game and now held a short dagger—there were several hidden on her person—in both of her hands while she scanned the area for the voice's owner.

"Who's there?" She called out, feeling oddly intimidated by the voice. She hadn't heard anyone nearby and she had excellent hearing. It made no sense how someone could have gotten _that_ close to her.

There was no answer.

Feeling both foolish and childish at having apparently imagined the entire thing, Astrid let her guard down and turned around to pick up the arrows and squirrels that she had dropped in her fright.

WHAM!

Astrid flew backwards like a ragdoll in the wind before she finally stopped several feet from where she had previously been standing. To her horror, whatever had hit her had apparently blinded her, because all she could see was blackness.

And then the blackness moved.

_Thor help me!_

Astrid, now thoroughly terrified, stared in naked terror at the _dragon_ perched on top of her. It wasn't as big as a monstrous nightmare, but it was still considerably larger than the average dragon. It was also completely covered in jet black scales and had razor sharp claws that were delicately holding her down to the ground. That was odd, she would have thought it would ha-

The dragon let out a roar that defied all the other roars Astrid had ever heard from any other dragon combined. The scream was so ear-shatteringly loud that she was actually concerned about possibly losing her hearing.

"She's fine boy," someone said softly and the dragon stopped its roaring. Instead, it stared down at Astrid like she was some new form of human that it had never seen—or eaten—before.

"Who's there!?" Astrid repeated for the second time in ten minutes, though now it was in a far higher pitch than before. She was one of the deadliest vikings on Berk, but even she was left all but petrified by a demon pinning her down.

"Let her up boy, she'll never listen like that."

Almost as if it were a tame dog, the dragon—a night fury, she realized—released Astrid without a second glance and retreated off towards where the voice's owner was. Tentatively moving all of her limbs, Astrid was amazed to find that everything was still where it had been thirty minutes ago—though her ribs did ache from the dragon's brutal tackle.

"Will you behave or do I have to make him sit on you again?" The voice questioned and Astrid craned her head to look at the speaker at long last. The man standing above her wasn't exactly the definition of tall, dark, and handsome.

However, for whatever reason, Astrid found the slightest hint of a blush try to fight its way to the surface of her cheeks. Finding the mere thought of her being attracted to the hermit before her made Astrid demolish any attempts at blushing immediately before she shoved whatever she _was_ feeling into the back of her mind.

The man was short, maybe an inch or two taller than her. His brown locks were wild and unruly and his face was covered in the facial hair of a young man—which both confused and intrigued Astrid. His body was covered in furs and leather that was the same shade of brown as his hair, only they were lightly battered and slightly faded. His eyes though, his eyes were an unfair majestic emerald green.

They took Astrid's breath away.

_AGH! GO AWAY!_

Astrid violently shook her head to rid herself of any more traitorous thoughts before she stood up, though shakily, to face the man before her.

"Who are you?"

"I figured you wouldn't recognize me," the man murmured softly—Astrid was almost certain he sounded bitter.

"Should I have?" Astrid asked, confused now.

"No, it doesn't matter," the man said before he gestured at himself and the dragon, which sat behind him in a manner akin to a dog sitting at its master's heels. "I'm sure you're wondering what's going on."

Astrid eyed the dragon and its apparent docile nature, "yeah...an explanation would be nice," she admitted as she slowly inched her hand towards her side. There was a dagger hidden inside the fabric, if only she could-

"Please don't do that," the man said softly as he stared directly at the hand Astrid had been reaching with. "It upsets him," he added with a gesture at the dragon sitting behind him.

"Oh...well then-" Astrid abruptly ended her own sentence before she tore off into the windows. She wasn't heading towards the village, it was on the other side.

_Crap..._

"Wait!" The man cried out, only to be swallowed up by the forest around her as Astrid plunged deeper into the woods. She had no idea who the man was, or how he had seen her reach for her dagger so quickly, but she knew she had to get out of there _now_.

Fate, however, had other plans.

Astrid hadn't even made it a good thirty feet before she felt something soft, yet wet and gummy, clasp tightly to her shoulder plates before she was suddenly no longer attached to the ground. Screaming in fright, Astrid watched as the ground suddenly became increasingly distant from her feet as the sounds of dragon wings flapping became dominant.

Realizing that the night fury now had her in its mouth, Astrid started to kick and squirm away, only to suddenly become aware that its mouth was the only thing keeping her from plummeting to her death. Of course, she learned this after she had _already_ squirmed out of its mouth.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Astrid cried as she suddenly fell back into gravity's grip. She was flailing madly as her fit form fell like a stone through water towards the suddenly pointing trees and rocks below.

Before she hit the ground, however, Astrid felt the dragon—night fury—swoop down at breakneck speed and instead of being impaled on a treetop, Astrid found herself hanging off the back of the dragon's harness.

_Wait, a harness?_

"Hold on!" The man cried out as the world began to shift around them.

Before Astrid could even begin to contemplate the fact that the dragon was actually a mount for the man, she found herself now facing the sky as the dragon shot out of the dive and instead soared straight up into the heavens. Left with the choice of falling again or clinging onto the man's waist for dear life, Astrid chose the latter. _Barely_.

She might have been surprised how soft the man was—though she was seriously beginning to doubt he was in fact a _man—_however, Astrid was more concerned with just how high the night fury planned to go. She received her answer a moment later when it preformed a spiral before leveling out so that it now was once again aligned horizontally with the horizon.

"Odin's beard..." Astrid breathed in pure wonder as she gazed out at the sight before her.

They were in the clouds.

Souring so high over the surface of the earth, Astrid could only make out a sea of clouds below them and an ocean of clouds above them. There was nothing but golden sky and heavenly matter surrounding them.

And then the sun started to rise.

_And I thought it was beautiful at the tree..._

If the heavenly scene a moment before had awed Astrid, than the new scene positively blew her away. The sun had just started to rise and it was currently painting all of the virgin white clouds a dazzling golden hue. As if that was not enough, the moisture in the air suddenly ignited and rainbows of all shades and sizes leapt out at them from every angle.

"Am...am I dead?" Astrid asked in awe as she continued to hold tight to the man before her. The man chuckled and glanced back at her, causing their eyes to lock. As emerald green met ice blue, the world suddenly dimmed and the scenery around them seemed to slow down.

_Such beautiful eyes.._

The man was the first to snap out of the daze they had both fallen into. "You're not dead, but you are as close to heaven as I've ever been," he told her truthfully.

Astrid stared at him a moment longer before snapping out of the daze as well. "Why?" She asked him after she took another tentative glance around the heaven they were soaring through. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because everything you knew about dragons was a lie," the man said before gesturing at the dragon they were riding on. "They are _not_ your enemies," he informed her and for the first time in her life, Astrid didn't think such talk was crazy.

"Who _are_ you?" Astrid asked as she continued to stare into his eyes. She knew those eyes. But where?

The man opened his mouth to speak and Astrid leaned in just a bit to hear him better over the roaring wind.

"My name is...Astrid wake up."

"What?" Astrid asked, completely baffled by his answer. "Is this some sort of joke to you!?"

The man seemed baffled, "I'm sorry?" He asked, just as confused as she was.

"Your name!" Astrid demanded, "what is your name?!"

"I told you," the man said, seeming to grow frustrated as he repeated his name for her for the second time. "Astrid, wake up Astrid."

"What?" Astrid said, confused even more.

"Astrid," the man said as his voice changed slightly, "WAKE! UPPPPPP!"

* * *

"YENNNAGHHGAHSH!" Astrid cried as she was hit by a second bucket of water and slapped roughly by her father for the tenth time.

Sigrum Hofferson was staring at her with a mixture of extreme confusion and concern, "Astrid, are you alright?" He demanded as his daughter finally came back from the land of dreams.

"F-father?" Astrid said, looking completely lost as she glanced around the room widely.

"Yes, Astrid?"

"What...where am I?" Astrid demanded.

_What happened to the man!? And the dragon!? And the clouds!?_

"We found you passed out in the woods near your training field," Sigrum said, obviously concerned about the safety of his daughter. "You apparently hit a tree with your head while running from something..."

_Was it all a dream?_

"I...I don't remember," Astrid lied as she faked a groan.

_It couldn't have been, it was too real..._

"I'll go get some more water," Sigrum assured her while he eyed her suspiciously. He knew she was lying to him and that bothered him deeply. But for now, he would tend to his daughter. _Then _he would figure out why she had suddenly decided to lie to the very man that had taught her how to lie in the first place. As her father left to get more water and more rags for her, Astrid could think of only one thing.

She had to get back to the training field.

* * *

_**GOOD FREAKING GRIEF! THAT TOOK FOREVER!**_

_** This plot idea came to me while I was rewatching How To Train Your Dragon (for the thousandth time) after I watched the trailer for the new HTTYD movie. I am not being paid to say this (type this?), but I highly recommend you find the trailer for the HTTYD 2 movie and watch it if you haven't already. If you HAVE watched it already, watch it again!**_

_** This was a lot of fun to write, it was originally just Hiccup and Astrid flying around, then it was just Astrid practicing, then it morphed into both of those things, and finally it became the product you have just finished reading. I thank you for the time you spent reading it.**_

_** I'm tired, hungry, and ready to take a LONG nap. Those are all symptoms of a long writing session if you were curious. I can barely type this whole author note as it is.**_

_** Anyways, this will be posted as a seperate fic on my page under the (obvious) title Exiled. I will continue to update the story (spoiler) there. I have at least one more chapter (maybe two) in mind for this AU fic and if you want to see them, go review and subscribe to that fic as well. I will of course continue to update Just A Few Little Hiccups as well, however I really liked where this whole plot was going.**_

_** I'm dead tired, good night/morning/evening (whatever)!**_

** _Lostsword _**

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**REVIEW REPLY**

**Ferdoos: Thanks for catching that typo! I hate to admit it, but that happens a lot with the Thorston twins. I'm glad you love this fic series so much and I do plan to do a date chapter next (hint hint).**

**Togekiss0: Thanks for all of the encouragement, I genuinely appreciate it! I think you'll get your fill of Hiccup and Astrid (and other couples) in the coming chapters...**

**Megadracosaurus: You, my friend, deserve an award. Not all of that material will be used, but I will do my best to write a fic that you helped inspire. Even though I won't use all of the stuff you suggested, the large quantity of ideas is GREATLY appreciated and it definitely helped me get my own ideas flowing. THANK YOU!**

**DRAGONGIRL: You...you are truly evil... (I kinda want to use Dora now just to see what would happen).**

**DoomedToBeACrazyFanGirlForever: I'm truly sorry about that. I hate writing OOC characters, I think it defeats the purpose of fanfiction. It happens though from time to time. Especially in a fic series like this. Thanks for the feedback though! And the praise!**

**Nazo no Shojo16: You have no idea how tempted I was to write that, but I just can't stomach the thought of Snoutlout even POSSIBLY having a child with Astrid. Sorry, not gonna happen...or is it?**

**Month4: Thank you, I'm glad your enjoying the fic! As to the Alvin bit though, I am sorry but I just haven't read enough of the books (or any really) to write that character correctly. I want to start reading the HTTYD books, but I am a lazy person by nature, so picking them up isn't likely to happen for some time. I have considered writing non-film characters into my stuff before though, if you were curoius.**

** 98: I am indeed ;)**

**Guest (Ami): I want to do that story idea simply to make your day, but I have an idea in mind that I think you'll like even more than the one you asked for. If not, I can always write it later. Thanks for your review!**

**Madison: You honestly made my day. I thought everyone hated my truth and dare stuff, but you have renewed my interest in writing it! Thank you!**


	5. Episode V: Stay Here Tonight

_**AN: This episode was inspired by the song "Stay" by Goldhand. There is a HiccupxAstrid music video on YouTube featuring the song that I would highly recommend you watch. I am not being paid to say that. Enjoy the episode!**_

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Episode V: Stay Here Tonight

Hiccup was going to kill him.

The brunette was currently in the land of his dreams: holding Astrid Hofferson within his arms while she held onto him as if her life itself depended on it. The only problem was that she was crying.

Astrid _never_ cried.

But now she was and Hiccup was determined to do two things. Comfort her until she was over the breakup, then murder the back stabbing, foul mouthed, troll of a human that had hurt the most beautiful girl in the world.

"Shhhh," Hiccup whispered for the hundredth time that night as he held her close with one arm while brushing through her hair in a comforting manner with his free hand. "It's alright."

Though they had never really been close friends—or friends at _all_ for that matter—Hiccup and Astrid had known each other for years because of two facts they shared. Well, one they shared and one they were now bitterly bonding over. They both had attended the same local high school for the past seventeen years.

And they had both been unimaginably hurt by Snoutlout Jorgenson.

"He didn't even face me..." Astrid said softly as she buried her head deeper into Hiccup's comforting chest. To her surprise, there was a layer of muscle there. It was soft, but strangely comforting in a way that she had greedily been taking advantage of for the past hour. She had never felt safer.

Hiccup nodded silently and continued to stroke her hair in a soothing manner as he mentally replayed the events that had occurred only a short hour prior.

* * *

_"H-Hiccup?" Astrid said softly, her sobbing already threatening to return in full force._

_ "A...A...Astrid?" Hiccup said, completely shocked that the blonde beauty would call him on her own accord._

_ "Can...can you come over to my house?" She asked, unknowingly fulfilling one of Hiccup's greatest dreams._

_ "O-Of course!" Hiccup half shouted, half squealed into the cell phone before his face became a portrait of pure terror and shame. "I-I mean, if I have r-room in my sch-" Hiccup began to say, trying to act cool in an attempt to impress Astrid, but it backfired terribly._

_ "It's okay," Astrid assured him suddenly as Hiccup suddenly sensed he was about to be hung up on. "I knew this was a bad idea," she muttered. Hiccup opened his mouth immediately to resolve his wrong, but he never got the chance._

_ She hung up._

_ Hiccup had wasted no time in barging out of his house. Night had barked at him and tried to follow; Fury had hissed at him as only a feline could when it was concerned for its beloved master. Both were left behind in the dust of Hiccup's battered old pick up truck._

_ "Astrid!" Hiccup cried as he burst out of the driver's side of the truck and ran towards her home. He had only been there twice; once for a party that had become the worst night of his life and once, more recently, for a history project that they had been paired together for._

_ "Open up!" He demanded as he hammered on the door's wooden frame. He knew her parents were out of town for the week on their anniversary weekend and did not hesitate to take advantage of it. "I know you're in there Astrid!"_

_ Hiccup banged on the door for a good thirty minutes—the entire time he was worried the neighbors would call the cops on him—before he gave up and simply opened the door and walked inside._

_ The Hoffersons were a wealthy enough family to live in Hiccups neighborhood—his father was the mayor of their town, so he had money to spend—but they never bothered with conventional security measures like alarms, locks, or even fences._

_ There was simply no one stupid enough to think they could _attempt_ to rob a household of former commandos. Astrid's father had spent the majority of his adult life in the Swedish __Särskilda Operationsgruppen. Her mother had been a German born Captain in the Royal British Commandos. Astrid's older sister had just returned on leave from a multinational operation overseas._

_ The sheer insanity required to bother such dangerous people was probably the reason no one had bothered to call the cops on Hiccup. He was probably the weakest male within a hundred miles._

_ At least that was what he had been told._

_ "Astrid?" Hiccup called as he quickly searched the main floor of the somewhat spartan abode. Career soldiers had a habit of collecting trinkets from battle, but other than that they rarely decorated their homes. They never had to worry about tiding up before guests came over though._

_ After he had finished searching the main floor, and he doubted Astrid would hide in the basement, Hiccup climbed the steps to the top floor and headed towards Astrid's door. Though he had entered the Hofferson's home with a near casual air, Hiccup could not bring himself to barge into what he considered sacred ground._

Scratch that_, he thought, _it was holy ground surrounded by sacred ground_._

_ "A-Astrid?" Hiccup asked, tentatively, as he knocked gently on the wooden frame. It was a sharp contrast to his previously frantic actions over the last thirty five minutes._

_ He received no answer._

_ "Look," Hiccup said softly, his head almost leaning against the door frame as he spoke, "I know I messed up earlier, but please don't ignore me."_

_ Still no answer._

_ "Astrid," Hiccup tried again, "I'm trying to help you, honest."_

_ When it became clear that she wasn't going to let him in, Hiccup turned around to leave, his head was hung low in defeat. It was at that exact same moment that the door swung inward and the blonde beauty spoke._

_ "Wait," her silky smooth voice said, though there was still a tremor of pain deep in her tone. "D-Don't go."_

_ Hiccup turned and was confronted with a sight he would have sworn to be impossible only forty minutes ago. Astrid Hofferson, the scion of her family line and the brightest, prettiest, and most dangerous female in all of Berk, was _crying_._

_ "Ast-" Hiccup started to say, only to be shushed as Astrid took a tentative step forward. _

_ Then she ran flat out into his stunned arms._

_ "Just shut up and hold me please," Astrid said softly as she buried herself into him. Hiccup, despite himself, was frozen in shock and blushing redder than all of the tomatoes in the world combined._

_ They stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, however, eventually Astrid slowly led him back into her room—always careful to make sure her source of comfort was close by—before she sat them both down on her bed. It wasn't a romantic gesture, she simply wanted to sit down and the bed was the only piece of furniture available to them in her small room. The second Hiccup had sat down on the thin surface of the mattress he felt Astrid begin to sob through the fabric of his shirt._

_ He didn't know what possessed him to do it, but Hiccup suddenly found one of his arms around Astrid's lithe frame while his free hand began to stroke through her golden hair gently in a soothing manner—another dream fulfilled in the space of a single hour._

_ Once again time seemed to slow and the two teenagers found themselves in their own little worlds for another brief eternity. Astrid, drowning in her painful memories; Hiccup, torn between speaking—which could possibly ruin the moment—and remaining silent as his longtime crush cried._

_ He knew one path would be selfish, the other would be right._

_ He chose._

_ "Astrid?" Hiccup said softly, causing the girl in his arms to sniffle quickly before looking up at him, "what happened?"_

_ To his surprise, she answered him._

_ Astrid told him bluntly—it was her nature—what had happened to her, but it was also clearly painful to speak about. To Hiccup's relief though, it appeared to help her; her face grew softer, calmer, and dryer as she spoke the wound tearing words of confession. Hiccup listened, but remained silent._

_ By the time she had finished, he would never look at his cousin or Tuffnut's sister the same ever again._

* * *

"I just can't believe he would dump me for my best friend..." Astrid murmured softly, more asleep than awake at the moment as Hiccup's affectionate gestures—whether he knew it or not—began to lull her into the land of dreams.

"He's scum," Hiccup said softly, though the hate lacing his words were easy to identify.

"He's your cousin," Astrid said, but both of them knew that meant nothing. Snoutlout Jorgenson should have been sent to prison for sentencing Hiccup to Hell. Instead, he was probably screwing Ruffnut at his house.

"_He tried to sleep with me," Astrid said, her tone making it clear she had _not_ agreed to such an idea. "I told him no. He left."_

Hiccup had spent the vast majority of his seventeen years of life being abused, tortured, ridiculed, and stepped on by his larger, more muscular, jock of a cousin. The harsh beatings, cruel jokes, and brutal social scars that would forever stain Hiccup's past were testament to that fact alone.

"I wish he wasn't," Astrid muttered as she moved for the first time in over an hour. It wasn't to pull away, as Hiccup had feared she would after she had stopped crying, but rather she wrapped her arms around Hiccup's lower back. "You're too nice to be related to him."

"Thank you," Hiccup managed to say as he blushed madly while praying silently that Astrid wouldn't notice due to the dim lighting in the room. It was a vain prayer, she noticed the second the color bloomed across his features.

"Don't look so embarrassed," Astrid said, sounding like herself for the first time since Hiccup had picked up his phone at eleven o'clock at night. "You have a nice blush," she complimented, blushing herself at the statement.

"So do you," Hiccup said without thinking; both teens immediately began to blush harder as they continued to stare at each other, though their eyes hadn't locked yet.

"T-thank you..." Astrid said just before it happened.

Icy, wary blue met tortured, beaten green. An electric explosion akin to an atom bomb went off throughout their bodies as they stared at the other, perfectly frozen and terrified.

Neither moved, neither breathed.

And then Hiccup found Astrid leaning forward, her eyes scared, but her body confident. It took him a minute to realize that _he_ was leaning forward as well, but he made no move to stop himself.

The world exploded in a colorful display of emotion and nerves as their lips met. Hiccup felt his hand in her hair lock in place while his arm around her back slid to her waist and pulled her closer. Her own arms slid up to his neck and she gracefully pulled his head down to deepen the kiss.

The peaceful eternity Hiccup had spent holding Astrid seemed like a millisecond compared to the length of time he spent kissing her. They broke for air, of course, but that didn't end their moment; it almost increased it. The sense of leaving each other, only to immediately return was exhilarating.

Hiccup was on top of the world; Astrid _wanted_ to kiss him, she kept kissing him because _she_ wanted to, not because it had been a heat of the moment kind of thing.

They kept kissing for a long time, Hiccup was sure it was well past midnight when they finally stopped. That wasn't to say they separated, far from it; they were plastered together closer than ever, with Astrid straddling Hiccup while one of his arms kept her tight against his chest as their faces hovered mere inches from each other.

"Wow," Hiccup said simply, but wonder coated his voice.

"Yeah...wow," Astrid said, similarly amazed.

Hiccup opened his mouth to say something, but instead he was cut off as Astrid's phone rang. The sound was akin to a gun shot going off as both teens separated while their moment was ruined. Astrid reached down and plucked her phone off the floor and opened the device before applying it to her ear.

"Hello?" Astrid said, confused only for a moment before her face became a mask of rage and pain. "I don't care, don't talk to me. _Ever_."

With that, Astrid shut the phone and set it down on her bedside table. To Hiccup, it seemed as if she had suddenly unloaded a massive weight on her shoulders. She seemed a bit happier too, but he wasn't sure if it was because they had made out or if it was because of her abrupt termination of her phone call.

"I guess I should be going," Hiccup said as he realized that whatever chance he had of kissing Astrid again was gone. Most likely forever.

"Wait," Astrid said as she stared at him, her eyes slowly refilling with terror as she watched Hiccup attempt to get up. "Please...don't..." she began, only to close her eyes in acceptance.

"What?" Hiccup asked, unsure of what to do.

Astrid opened her eyes and made up her mind. "Please don't go," she said with shaky resolve.

"Its late," Hiccup said, he himself wasn't completely ready to leave just yet, "I should be going..."

"Hiccup," Astrid said softly as she reached forward and held his hand. Her voice had sounded angelic to Hiccup before, now it sounded somehow even more so as she all but froze him to the spot with the combined power of holding his hand. "Please stay with me tonight," she said and Hiccup all but fainted.

Dream number three—if slightly perverted—had just been accomplished.

"B-but-"

"Just for tonight," Astrid pleaded, her eyes begging him to stay as she scooted closer while bringing her face within mere inches of his own. "You don't have to do anything but hold me," she assured him, however Hiccup's mind ran rampant with the implications of what he was about to agree to.

"I suppose," Hiccup said as Astrid's eyes lit up in delight.

"Thank you!" She said, truly meaning it as she hugged him tightly before kissing his cheek. "That...that means a lot to me."

"Uh, n-no problem," Hiccup assured her as he turned red again.

His father would kill him tomorrow when Hiccup crawled home, but it was _so_ worth it. It was worth it a million, no, a billion, no, a _trillion_ times over.

The lights were quickly turned off and the window was left slightly cracked open and then Hiccup found himself in the same bed as Astrid Hofferson. Though he had dreamed of such an occasion—he _was_ a guy after all—he had never expected it to be so...perfect.

They kept their clothes on and nothing inappropriate occurred between them. Hiccup slept with his back against the wall while Astrid curled up against him, wrapped protectively in his arms, while the sounds of the night lulled them gently to sleep.

It was the deepest, calmest, most perfect sleep either of them would ever have.

Fin.

* * *

_**I truly enjoyed writing this, even though I had to keep from going off into the back stories of every character I made up. I also wanted to explain what had happened with Snoutlout and Ruffnut, but I didn't feel like making this a two part fic and honestly I just felt like it would ruin the magic of Astrid being comforted by Hiccup. I hope you enjoyed this, I know I certainly did.**_

_**See you all for now!**_

_**Lostsword**_


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